Smoke
by PolytheneSkin
Summary: He tasted like cigarettes, but it didn't stop Roxas from wanting more.  More that he wouldn't be allowed to have.


I had this sitting around in my folder of stories for about a year and a half, so I figured it was about time to freshen it up and send it out into the world to make its own destiny. I had always liked it, so I hope I didn't break it when I added stuff and changed some things around. I feel it may just come off as confusing because I have this whole story in my head that goes with it, and I only wrote parts of it...Whelp, I'll just let you read it now. Have a ball! :)

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><p>Roxas sat down on the park bench, watching as the others meandered about the fountain, shaking hands and greeting brethren that they hadn't seen in weeks, some for months, others years. He watched as grown men's faces lit up with surprise and awe at seeing their comrades. Occasionally he even thought he spied a brief and manly hug, perhaps for those special occasions where some one thought dead was miraculously alive. He clenched his hands together, elbows resting on his spread knees, and hung his head.<p>

He wasn't meant to be here, he felt horribly out of place. He knew few of these men; their returns meant nothing to him. He saw Axel looking at him curiously. He shrugged to his friend, and got up to leave. He didn't want to be here anymore, there wasn't a reason for him to stay. So he headed in the direction of downtown, taking the long path through the park. He was in no rush to be anywhere, why not take the scenic route for once?

He pulled his hat down farther over his ears, trying to keep out the chill from the breeze that wound its way through the menagerie of trees. He glanced around, seeing the people that littered the pathways. These people, these families, did they really fear Axel so much? The stories he had heard, the rumors that were spread; it seemed like Axel and his gang owned this city. How could his childhood friend have done all the things that these goons spoke of?

~x~x~x~x~x~

The smoke drifted towards him from the other man's mouth. He tried breathing shallowly, but the bitter taste still found its way onto his tongue. He tried his best not to cough. It would only encourage Axel's strange acquaintance.

"You like the city much?" Riku asked, grinning seductively at him.

"It's alright." Roxas answered noncommittally, and turned the page in his book.

"Just alright'? What's so bad about it?" The other man seemed determined to get something out of him.

"Nothing's bad per say, it's just different than I imagined." He had just read the same sentence three times.

"What did you imagine, exactly?" Riku asked, inching closer, purposefully blowing smoke into his face. He couldn't stop himself from coughing this time, and Riku chuckled lightly, "Can't stand the heat? Big city too much to handle?"

"Look, I'm trying to read, could you please just go away?" He nearly begged.

"Only if you tell me what it is you were hoping to find in this big ol' city." He answered tauntingly.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe people with some moral decency?"

"Ouch, and here I thought we were getting to be friends!" Riku seemed crushed, but he moved closer to him slowly, and he felt a hand graze his thigh. Roxas was fed up with this.

"Look, I don't even know you." He retorted harshly, closing his book and slamming it down on his lap, "And quite frankly, I think you have a serious problem with personal space. You ask too many questions. Your hair is a ridiculous color, it looks stupid styled like that. Basically, you're weird."

"How could any old friend of Axel's think anyone's hair was strange looking?" Riku laughed, unaffected by Roxas's other comments.

"Don't talk about Axel and I like you know what happened between us." Roxas glared at the silver-haired man, annoyed by the tone of his voice, the connotation of his words, the fact that he was still sitting so close.

"Oh, but I do know. Axel told me all about you _Roxas_." The way he said his name, like it held some valuable secret, ticked Roxas off even more. Riku's eyes were narrowed into a dangerous gaze, a confident smirk plastered on his lips.

"You know nothing about me." Roxas tensed, eyes narrowed slightly, guarded against this man.

"Oh Roxas," Riku chuckled and took a long drag from his cigarette, "I know _everything_." Smoke blew from his mouth as he spoke, making Roxas cough again.

~x~x~x~x~x~x~

The lips pressed against his were warm, probably from the smoke that was held behind them. They moved slightly, and some of that smoke escaped and drifted up, filling Roxas's nostrils with the harsh and bitter scent of tobacco. He was surprised to find his first thought wasn't disgust, but rather the happy realization that it was only cigarettes that Riku smoked, and not something much worse.

The warm lips worked against his own, and he felt a hand slip onto the small of his back, another onto his neck. They were pulling him closer, latching firmly onto him, preventing escape. But he found that he didn't really want to leave. His hands still fell limply at his sides, unmoving, but the rest of his body was the same: unmoving, unwilling to leave that spot and the warm, smoke filled lips attached to his own.

And suddenly he felt his lips open, prodded by a moist tongue, not entirely unwelcome. It invaded his open mouth, moving against his teeth and tongue like a ravished beast. And the smoke filled his mouth as well, that burning acidic fog curled into his mouth and down his throat as his own tongue was attacked by another. It tasted like ash. It tasted like sex.

He wasn't surprised to find that, by this point, his fingers had buried themselves in Riku's hair and now clung desperately to the other man. He felt Riku's hands, now both on his waist, fingers digging into his skin, and he relished the pain from those small points of pressure. He pulled Riku face closer, his lips and tongue now reacting to the other man, moving in synchronization. He wanted more of that taste, that burning acid lust that crept from Riku mouth into his.

But then Riku bit his lower lip, pulled it into his own mouth to lightly suck, looking into his eyes with a gaze that screamed of pure desire. And as Riku did that the taste weakened, the burning in the back of Roxas's throat lessened, and he realized what he was doing.

He stepped back immediately, breaking Riku's grasp on his waist and his lip. Riku seemed shocked for a moment, but seeing the look of surprise and confusion on Roxas's face, lightened. His signature smirk returned to his face, and he chuckled. He buried his hands into his pockets, and hung his head.

"You are such a liar, you know that?" Riku said, turning and heading to the door, pulling another cigarette from his pocket to replace the one that was now forgotten on the floor.

"What do you mean?" Roxas asked, confused further.

Riku turned in the doorway, "You, you're a liar." He said with a confident smile, "You think my hair is sexy."

And with that he turned and walked out, leaving Roxas alone.

~x~x~x~x~x~x~

The gun in Roxas's hand shook. He had never held a gun before, much less fired one. But Riku didn't know that. Actually, Riku probably _did_ know that, he knew far too much about Roxas than the blonde was comfortable with. But that didn't erase the fact that Roxas was the one with the gun, which was pointed directly at the silver-haired menace. But it shook, and he couldn't seem to keep a good steady hold on the damn thing. Riku just stood there are stared at him, face blank, usual smirk gone. No emotion was getting past those blue eyes of his that usually held a mischievous glint, sometimes a dangerous glare, other times a burning lust.

He had to do it. Roxas had to shoot him. And Riku was just standing there, waiting for him to pull the trigger. He had to do it. But he couldn't seem to hold it steady enough to fire. And his eyes had too many tears for him to aim. So he just stood there, shaking gun pointed in the general direction of the other man in the room, lured here under false pretense, trapped here while Roxas was meant to fulfill his assassination orders.

"Why don't you put the gun down, Roxas?" Riku said quietly, attempting to not startle the blonde. "We both know you're not going to shoot me."

"How do you know?" Roxas screamed at him. "How do you know anything?"

"It's my job to know." He answered calmly, carefully.

"I have to do this!" Roxas yelled, "I _have _to do this! I don't have a choice!" He brought his other hand up to the gun, trying to steady it, trying to hide the fact that he was so terrified.

"You have a choice Roxas."

"No! I don't! I have no choice!" Roxas shook his head, tears flying from his cheeks. "He's going to kill me if I don't! Don't you see Riku, Axel's going to kill me! Kill _me_! **_Kill me_**!" The gun dropped down a few inches, Roxas's head hanging limply, eyes closed. "I don't want to but I have to. Or I'm going to _die!" _Roxas's voice was hysterical, eyes jerked back up to stare at at the other man, but Riku still stood calmly at the other end of the bare gray room.

"Why did you go to him? Why turn to Axel when you knew who he was, what he had done?" Riku asked.

"You know already! You know everything!" He screamed, "I didn't know who he was, I didn't know what he had done! He had always been Axel to me, just Axel...just Axel, my best friend...just my..."

"Boyfriend?"

"No."

"No?"

"No. He was never that. That's why I came back. When I had nothing left, I tried to get what I had never been able to achieve." The gun fell uselessly by his side. The tears still rushed down his cheeks, his eyes were still locked with Riku's. He suddenly realized how heavy the gun was. "But Axel's different. Or...he isn't _different_. He's more himself now than he ever was. There had always been something dangerous about him. It had been alluring when it was a facet of him. But now...I realize its not a facet, its who he is. Now it's consumed him, its his true self...his whole self."

They just stood there then, facing each other, two quiet men in a quiet room, both on the verge of death.

"We'll run." Riku said firmly, like the decision had already been made.

"We do that and we both die." Roxas answered, voice tired.

"Look, you have three options. You don't kill me, Axel kills you and gets someone else to kill me. So we both die. Or you kill me and Axel just has you kill more people. You don't want that. Or we run."

"And then we both die."

"Yeah, if you're pessimistic about it."

Roxas looked across at the silver-haired spy he had come here to kill, who he had somehow managed to fall in love with despite the cigarettes and the snarky attitude and the annoying habits, who he would never be able to bring himself to shoot. And slowly Riku walked to him, took Roxas's face in his hands, and kissed him slowly and passionately, the kiss of a man sentenced to death relishing one last blissful moment of selfishness and luxury. And Roxas kissed him back forcefully, and when they finally parted he whispered to the other man, faces only inches apart,

"We run."

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><p>I think I based this off of a picture I saw somewhere, but I can't for the life of me remember where or what it was. Anywho, I would love to know what you thought! Please do review if you liked it, or if you hated it, or if you were eating pie while reading it. I do so love pie. Tell me which flavor. Damn it, now I want pie.<p> 


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